‘An ever-pacing thought’: the dangers of the symbol in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
This study investigates the instability of the symbols in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, and the dangers of a symbolic reading both to the crew of the Pequod and the reader of the novel. If Ishmael, on the one hand, inhabits the borders of the text and, therefore, becomes the only possible witness t...
| Authors: | , |
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| Format: | article |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication Date: | 2014 |
| Country: | Brasil |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM) |
| Repository: | Acta Scientiarum. Language and Culture (Online) |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:periodicos.uem.br/ojs:article/23472 |
| Online Access: | http://www.periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/ActaSciLangCult/article/view/23472 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Moby Dick symbols instability símbolos instabilidade Herman Melville e Moby Dick |
| Summary: | This study investigates the instability of the symbols in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, and the dangers of a symbolic reading both to the crew of the Pequod and the reader of the novel. If Ishmael, on the one hand, inhabits the borders of the text and, therefore, becomes the only possible witness to the shipwreck – that is to say – the one who erases his traces of identity so that he can narrate his experience – Ahab, on the other hand, invests in the alleged concreteness of the symbols and, for this reason, submerges along with the meanings he first attributed to his quest. Together with the sinking of the Pequod, the symbols submerge to make way for an errant textuality. |
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